30 May 2007

This is a shoutout to welcome The Cunning Runt to this tiny little group of mild mannered, contented, laissez-faire... Oh. My. FSM. I can't keep that up! Anyway, glad you're finally in the blogosphere. Give 'em hell, brother! Now, if I can just remember how to add to my blogroll....

As far as sensitivity goes, you're a lot more in tune than most people.You can't help but be touched by what's around you - good and bad.But when things do get really bad around you, you are strong enough not to break down.

25 May 2007

You scored as Scientific Atheist, These guys rule. I'm not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future.

24 May 2007

Just a quick shout out to my dear (gimpy) friend, Icaia, who has joined the 'team' over at Petulant Rumblings. Glad you're inhabiting these here tubes!!! For any who haven't been to Petulant Rumblings, it is a wholly enjoyable read! Go there now! Now, I say!

18 May 2007

As I have stated before, I do not yet have a digital camera, so previously I posted text descriptions of Puff and Callisto. Well, I borrowed my neighbor's camera the other day and took a couple of (bad) pictures of my faithful sidekicks.

This is Puff, disturbed from her intense cogitation (aka 'sleep') and wondering what the hell I'm holding in front of my face. Note that she is curled up on the fleece vest I received as a Christmas present - which she immediately claimed as a bed.

This is mere moments later. I call this the "You woke me up - I mean disturbed my cogitation - so now you have to love on me, God damn it!!!" pose. The paw reaching out of frame at the bottom is about to press insistently at my flesh, claws extended, until I succumb to her wishes.

This is Callie. (I said the pics weren't very good - predominately dark kitty in a dimly lit camper after the sun has gone behind the mountain... but at least you can see her face!) She prefers the bed as her snoozy place.

This was a (failed) attempt to move the light - I couldn't figure out how to make the flash work - and get a better picture of Callie. I failed. By the way, she doesn't really have a blurry head....

I shall attempt to become more proficient with digital cameras in the near future.

I am adrift. I am rudderless. I have no direction. I don't know what to do with myself. I stare blankly at the computer screen, not knowing where my life will go from here.

Am I suffering because of the death of Jerry Falwell? Oh, fuck no! Am I concerned over the future of the World Bank and Paul Wolfowitz? HA! Am I torn between Rudy Guiliani and Sam Brownshirt - er, Brownback? Only inasmuch as I don't know which of the two is more vile. Am I concerned about what our nation is doing in the Middle East? Well, yes, but that's not what I'm going on about.

No, what has me shivering with delerium tremens is the fact that Shakesville is partially offline. The most excellent Melissa McEwan, Queen Cunt of Fuck Mountain, Blogmistress Supreme, pointer-out of things of import, is without electricity in her abode and can therefore not post!

I have only been IV'ed to the net for the last few months, but have already come to rely on the internets for my daily dose of sanity, news, humor and outrage. I can only imagine the withdrawal that the denizens of Shakes Manor must be going through.

Luckily for all us Shakers (and I am honored to consider myself a minor one), the rest of the wonderful gang at that noble site is posting away. But I'm missing me some "Question of the Day" and "Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime", plus whatever else Melissa would have posted were she not sans electricity.

I am glad to know that - other than being without power - Shakes Manor, and the residents therein, survived unscathed, and anxiously await Melissa's return to the 21st Century....

12 May 2007

You scored as The Thing. With his brutish appearance and heart of gold, Ben Grim is a paradox. He hates his "condition," but he endures it for the good of the team. Ben is kind, loving, but hot-headed and emotional. He's really a romantic at heart, but he hides it behind his gruff exterior. His solution to most problems is to crush it.

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

08 May 2007

Attention all Fundies who wish to "return" the United States to its' "Christian" origins:

Article XI of the Treaty of Tripoli, officially ratified by the Senate with John Adams signature on 10 June 1797.

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity [sic], of Musselmen [sic]; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan [sic] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

In a letter to Ezra Stiles Ely, 25 June 1819, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

"You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."

In his, "A Defence [sic] of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" [1787-1788], John Adams wrote:

"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. ". . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind."

James Madison wrote in his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments [1785]:

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

[and]

"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."

07 May 2007

Okay, this one actually has relevance. Friday night I was hanging out at Shakesville's Virtual Pub and we got into a discussion of accents - and this test showed me to be exactly what I thought I was. A lingual mutt.

1. Most Middle Eastern countries recognize the following Islamic law: "After having sexual relations with a lamb, it is a mortal sin to eat its flesh."

2. In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.

3. In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman's genitals, but is forbidden from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.

4. Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers; the sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.

5. The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.

6. There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time. Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.

7. In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. (The husband's lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.)

8. In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens her mother must be in the room to witness the act.

9. In Santa Cruz, Bolivia it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.

10. In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one exception: prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only "in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for on the premises."

01 May 2007

from Ava Lowery, a teenage peace activist from Alabama at peacetakescourage.com . A teenager, not even old enough to vote yet, is more involved in trying to correct the wrongs in this nation than millions of her elders. Take a look at her site, especially some of the crap she has had to put up with.